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ARCHIVED - Technofil inc.: a close-knit enterprise

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From summer job…to President and CEO!

As a boy, Alain Bergeron would see his mother leave to go to work at Technofil, an important employer in the town where he lived. Years later, he himself landed a summer job there. Today, his business card reads: “President and CEO, Technofil.” A born entrepreneur with an extraordinary professional path, Alain Bergeron seems “tailor-made” for success in an industry that has seen better days in Quebec and Canada.

Founded in 1978, Technofil is located in Laurierville, a Centre-du-Québec municipality. The firm specializes in the design and manufacture of uniform pants for a business and government clientele. Technofil, which has 70 employees, offers pattern creation, cutting and grading services custom-designed to client specifications.

Thriving in a highly competitive sector

In an economic downturn and in the dog-eat-dog world of clothing, strengthening competitiveness can further business growth and development.

“We feel it’s important to create jobs and contribute to the economic development of our village. Canada Economic Development believed in our idea, which will allow us to move forward and grow in the coming years while maintaining the confidence of our clients,”said Alain Bergeron.

In order to stand out from the competition, Mr. Bergeron came up with a plan to increase the plant’s production capacity. The project consisted of adding 2,500 square feet to the existing building to accommodate material and equipment currently stored elsewhere. It also provided for acquiring much-needed equipment and a new data collection system integrating accounting, billing and payroll services, raw material reserves, purchasing and delivery times.

In keeping with its mandate to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their efforts to innovate and improve their competitiveness, Canada Economic Development awarded Technofil a repayable contribution to help it complete its project, which will result in the creation of 17 full-time jobs in a rural community of some 1,400 residents.

“We feel it’s important to create jobs and contribute to the economic development of our village. Canada Economic Development believed in our idea, which will allow us to move forward and grow in the coming years while maintaining the confidence of our clients,” said Alain Bergeron.

Innovating for employee well-being

Since he joined the company in 1984, Mr. Bergeron has listened to the solutions, some of them ingenious, put forward by the members of his team. In 2009, a very special innovation earned an award from Quebec’s workers’ compensation board, the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail ( CSST). Thanks to its team, who designed and developed a robotic arm, Technofil was able to eliminate the risk of musculoskeletal injuries associated with seamstress work. This novel tool performs repetitive movements and allows seamstresses to do their work easily and painlessly. Productivity has even gone up.

Alain Bergeron is proud of this achievement: "We take the well-being of our employees to heart. The Technofil team is what you would call a ‘tight-knit’ group. Several members of the Bergeron family hold positions at various levels in the company. Chances are that this family atmosphere has a lot to do with Technofil’s dynamic, high performing workforce."